2007-03-30

new blog

My F1 minded collegue Bram came over from Finland, and behold: another blog! In Dutch, but don't let that spoil the fun.

2007-03-26

Ninglinspo

We walked up and down the Ninglinspo valley yesterday afternoon; one of the first real spring Sundays here. The Ninglinspo ends in the Amblève, in my opinion one of the finest flyfishing rivers in Belgium.



Obviously we were not the only ones there. I have the feeling half Flanders went out - all in assorted high-tech Goretex gear. For a 5km walk in a bit of mud and rocks, with not even 300m vertical height difference to cover...

Some people also brought their dog, not knowing how water and mud appeal to a well-behaved doggie:

2007-03-24

panoramic

Just found this website. Not the most easy to read, and the language does not help. But the pictures*...

If I find a decent tripod before end June I might attempt some panoramic photography myself.

* dial up users beware: large image!

2007-03-16

bad things happening

One of the best Mac forums in the Benelux has been taken offline, due to heavy flaming of the forum administrators.

I hope at least the forum will be placed online again - it was a very reliable and fast information source on everything Apple-related...


UPDATE: fully down, no recovery. Sad...

2007-03-15

smog II

Less smog today, but I did bring my camera...

2007-03-14

smog

Belgium is under a smog alert these days. Like Mexico city, just a wee bit smaller.
All very unhealthy and so - though it makes for very nice sunsets. But of course I did not have my camera with me in the office today.
It also makes for some creative political thinking, all in the line of Al Gore*: a 90km/h speed limit on highways around Brussels is imposed.

Now I'm not hindered by any factual knowledge, but this limit does seem a bit strange to me. Apart from the fact that most pollution is caused by heavy road transport that doesn't do more than 90 at all times, the current smog is caused by weather conditions. Or rather it is caused by fine dust particles in the air, that are trapped/not moving due to the absence of wind and rain.

Now, the same amount of small dust particles are produced on any given day; they are just blown all over the place or washed into the soil. Is that less dangerous then? Let's hope nobody gets ideas...


* Mr Gore is so popular here these days, people even take helicopters to go see his film. Other talking heads donate the film to highschools. Heavily sponsored by Apple, that film. Can't blame the guy; Dell is not nearly as hip as a Mac. For another point of view, do try Michael Crighton's "State of fear" ( ISBN 0-00-718159-0).

2007-03-08

decisions


Some good news in these grey days: I finally got to order my next car. I expect a four or five month wait, it has to come a long way after all.

It did not come cheap though, contrary to my previous company cars. But being somewhat accident-prone I thought it better to pay extra for more metal between me and the other punks on the road.

There are many good reasons to choose this particular car - the nicest one being the fact that I learned to drive in its older brother:

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2007-03-07

reality

So... back to reality. The grey, rainy reality of queued calls, user-based testing and a combination of computer negligence and gross incompetence.

But I'm not complaining: holiday was good - necessary, and good. Even air travel did not spoil the mood, not even after landing 2 hours late (nothing compared to what some friends went through...), waiting awfully long for my luggage, and the usual airline food.

I managed to miss everything related to Disney, I did some good deals with camera and fishing gear, and I made some very nice pictures. There was a good deal of partying of course - and for a good reason!

Of course, 25°C in the shadow and nice company help with keeping up a good spirit.

You people know who I'm talking about... thanks for the great time you gave me!